Gary McKinnon was looking for UFOs, but US blames him for $700,000 of damage.

Gary McKinnon, a UK national who was facing extradition for hacking into Pentagon and NASA computer systems a decade ago, will not be extradited to the United States to face trial. Theresa May, the UK home secretary, has decided to block McKinnon's extradition after medical experts declared that he was likely to kill himself if forced to endure life in an American prison.

May said that McKinnon has Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism, and suffers from depression. "Mr. McKinnon's extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr. McKinnon's human rights," May said. Prosecutors in the UK will now have the option to bring charges against him under domestic laws.

McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, was delighted. "Thank you Theresa May from the bottom of my heart," she said, according to the BBC. "I always knew you had the strength and courage to do the right thing."

Using his home computer the appellant, through the internet, identified US Government network computers with an open Microsoft Windows connection and from those extracted the identities of certain administrative accounts and associated passwords. Having gained access to those accounts he installed unauthorised remote access and administrative software called “remotely anywhere” that enabled him to access and alter data upon the American computers at any time and without detection by virtue of the programme masquerading as a Windows operating system. Once “remotely anywhere” was installed, he then installed software facilitating both further compromises to the computers and also the concealment of his own activities. Using this software he was able to scan over 73,000 US Government computers for other computers and networks susceptible to similar compromise.

McKinnon allegedly accessed 53 Army computers, 26 Navy computers, 16 NASA computers, and one computer each at the Department of Defense and the Air Force. McKinnon then allegedly deleted data that included:

"critical operating system files from nine computers, the deletion of which shut down the entire US Army’s Military District of Washington network of over 2000 computers for 24 hours, significantly disrupting Governmental functions"

"2,455 user accounts on a US Army computer that controlled access to an Army computer network, causing these computers to reboot and become inoperable"

"logs from computers at US Naval Weapons Station Earle, one of which was used for monitoring the identity, location, physical condition, staffing and battle readiness of Navy ships, deletion of these files rendering the Base’s entire network of over 300 computers inoperable."

The Pentagon claims McKinnon's actions cost the government $700,000.

McKinnon says his goal was to find evidence that the American government had obtained extraterrestrial technology that it was withholding from the general public.

"I knew that governments suppressed antigravity, UFO-related technologies, free energy or what they call zero-point energy," McKinnon told Wired in 2006. "This should not be kept hidden from the public when pensioners can't pay their fuel bills."

And he claims he found the evidence he was looking for. For example, he alleges that NASA "regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging," but that he found copies of the original, non-airbrushed photos on NASA's servers.

Unfortunately, he says, the original photos were hundreds of megabytes, too large to download over his dial-up modem connection. But he was able to gain "remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side." But he says his access was discovered and cut off before he had time to save copies of the images.

The decade-long fight over McKinnon's extradition has helped to inspire reforms to the UK extradition process. "I have decided to introduce a forum bar," May said. "This will mean that where prosecution is possible in both the UK and in another state, the British courts will be able to bar prosecution overseas if they believe it is in the interests of justice to do so."

It's unclear if the decision not to extradite McKinnon or the changes to UK extradition law will help Richard O'Dwyer, a UK college student who is facing extradition to the United States on copyright charges. Judging from McKinnon's decade-long ordeal, it may take many years for O'Dwyer's extradition fight to be settled.

Timothy B. Lee
Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times. Emailtimothy.lee@arstechnica.com//Twitter@binarybits

133 Reader Comments

But he was able to gain "remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side."

Yep, that right there along with the other comments should be sufficient for an insanity defense. Sure the guy committed a crime and all, but I'm not sure this warrants extradition. Maybe just some good meds. The guy needs help.

I lol'd a bit at that. Looking for photographic evidence in a low resolution 4-bit color image leaves a lot to the imagination, much like gazing at clouds on a warm summer day.

But he was able to gain "remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side."

Yep, that right there along with the other comments should be sufficient for an insanity defense. Sure the guy committed a crime and all, but I'm not sure this warrants extradition. Maybe just some good meds. The guy needs help.

I lol'd a bit at that. Looking for photographic evidence in a low resolution 4-bit color image leaves a lot to the imagination, much like gazing at clouds on a warm summer day.

He goes on to say that "there were no visible seams or riveting," which seems like it would be hard to see on a 4-bit color, low-res version of a satellite photo.

The decade-long fight over McKinnon's extradition has helped to inspire reforms to the UK extradition process. "I have decided to introduce a forum bar," May said. "This will mean that where prosecution is possible in both the UK and in another state, the British courts will be able to bar prosecution overseas if they believe it is in the interests of justice to do so."

Does the victim get a say in this? And will they need to renegotiate their extradition treaties for this?

Let's see. US Gov says hackers causes $700,000 in damages. US Gov has spent how much attempting to extradite him? Prosecute his case sufficient to allow for a writ to be be argued in a British court? And then appealed how many times?

He'll cost even more here in the US when they try everything all over again, this time with a full burden of proof. He'll likely get even sicker and end up in a mental hospital at taxpayer expense.

Why doesn't the US government cut its losses and dump the case already! I'm sick and tired of paying taxes for this crap.

What really pisses me off is that EVERY ONE OF THOSE DAMN COMPUTERS should have been backed up daily and the cost would have been practically nothing. On top of that, every last one of those computers should have been properly administrated so that sick puppies like McKinnon couldn't waltz into the damn Windows operating systems.

I hardly see how 'looking for information' means he needed to delete files. All sounds like BS to me.

Yeah, Looking for evidence of aliens is one thing, spying is another, but deleting things and crashing computers for the hell of it only happens when you are an asshole. I have no sympathy, let him burn. If he had just been poking around there might have been cause for leniency given his other circumstances, but he deliberately attacked the US government.

Quote:

Let's see. US Gov says hackers causes $700,000 in damages. US Gov has spent how much attempting to extradite him? Prosecute his case sufficient to allow for a writ to be be argued in a British court? And then appealed how many times?

They want to set an example. We wouldn't expect a bomber or gunman that attacked a federal building to get off free just because it was expensive to prosecute.

I think the US Government should continue to press toward his extradition. The guy cost the government almost a million dollars, which means he cost YOU AND ME almost a million dollars. No, they will never get the money back, but I think he needs to pay for what he's done.

The guy's a nut case. However, from the US Gov't point of view, you can't let people off the hook after they hack into your systems.

You also can't prosecute a person for something as serious as murder if they are found to be mentally incompetent. This guys fits the bill from what it looks like. Off the mental institution for this guy with lots of meds.

They can't protect themselves from a person with *learning disabilities* sitting 4000 mi away and they are supposed to protect us ?

Speaking as someone who has taught special education and specialized in Autism, Autism-spectrum disorders are hardly learning disabilities. On the contrary, people with them are usually highly functional on a cognitive level and generally above average on the intelligence scale. It's just that they can come across otherwise at times due to intense focus and a relative lack of social skills.

"remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side."

If McKinnon's extradition can be halted, then the TVShack guy's definitely should be. He didn't even do anything illegal under US law, never mind UK law. If my understanding is correct, someone can only be extradited if their actions were illegal in both countries.

What really pisses me off is that EVERY ONE OF THOSE DAMN COMPUTERS should have been backed up daily and the cost would have been practically nothing. On top of that, every last one of those computers should have been properly administrated so that sick puppies like McKinnon couldn't waltz into the damn Windows operating systems.

Here is an exercise for the reader: conclusively determine that there is not a keylogger on your computer right now. Assess the scope of a breach, assuming account compromise.

Auditing is serious work. Reimaging workstations is a good way to get a client back up and running, but a terrible way to handle an incident.

I wonder if the decision was based solely on his mental capacity or his mental capacity combined with the brutality of the US prison system and the harshness of US sentencing law.

At some point, the US has to come to grips with the fact that its criminal justice systems - police, courts, prisons - are not entirely compatible with extradition treaties.

With regard to drug laws, *IAA-inspired corruption, and certain other 'victimless' crimes, I completely agree. With regard to violent crimes, I have to say those harsh policies have paid dividends in terms of overall crime rates.

I think the US Government should continue to press toward his extradition. The guy cost the government almost a million dollars, which means he cost YOU AND ME almost a million dollars. No, they will never get the money back, but I think he needs to pay for what he's done.

If they patched the holes he used, then I'd say that was $1M well spent. If not, then I'd say our gov't is stupid and simply trying to shoot a messenger that put egg on their face.

I don't doubt the numbers but I doubt the correlation. The article even mentions harsh penalties as only one of several possible contributing factors. IMO the "deterrence effect" is primarily something invented in the minds of those who are already predisposed to obeying the law.

Aspergers or schizophrenia? How can someone that mentally deluded successfully compromise 73,000 government computers?

I think this guy falls under the "idiot savant" stereotype, where he's very gifted in a very narrow spectrum of things. Paranoid Schizophrenia gives a person a drive, motivation & determination to do whatever it takes to handle a task they think will protect them or prove that everyone is out to get them. (sister has PS, and before she was treated for it, she would throw herself into projects and learn whatever she could to accomplish some odd goal she'd dream up. Sadly, while on medication, her brain is pretty much shut down now, so it's almost like dealing with a robot).

Aspergers gives a person a lack of propriety...IE: they don't really consider that something you own is yours and they shouldn't mess with it. Team that together with some intelligence, curiosity and time on your hands, and you can get something like this.

It's a good thing that May blocked the extradition and will be looking at the criteria as things currently are, it is far too easy for the US to demand the extradition of a UK citizen and yet much harder for the UK to demand the extradition of a US citizen.

I don't doubt the numbers but I doubt the correlation. The article even mentions harsh penalties as only one of several possible contributing factors. IMO the "deterrence effect" is primarily something invented in the minds of those who are already predisposed to obeying the law.

This conversation is getting off-topic (my bad, I know), and this is arguable, but I think it's more about the statistic that most crime, especially violent crime, is by repeat offenders; thus taking them off the street longer = lower crime rates. Nothing else really makes a whole lot of sense.

So hacking into the pentagon = no extradition.Providing links on a website to access video and music = extradition?

Is that about right?

Yup that is about Right.Richard O'Dwyer fights Extradition for going up against the MAFIAA A-Hole Industry.Sure what he di was not illegal in his Nation nor did he have any infringing files on his website but that does not matter to the corrupted US Government.They are nothing but a bunch of lame sell-out corrupt Politicians you know when they take a Donation they intend to do something in return for that money.

Yeah, Looking for evidence of aliens is one thing, spying is another, but deleting things and crashing computers for the hell of it only happens when you are an asshole. I have no sympathy, let him burn. If he had just been poking around there might have been cause for leniency given his other circumstances, but he deliberately attacked the US government.

Did you see any substantial evidence from the US government that he really did all that damage?

To me, going through all that effort to root yourself into thousands of computers with the goal to stay undetected to be able to collect evidence about extra-terrestrial tech and then reveal your presence by crashing machines and deleting files -- It just doesn't make any sense.

Just reading the "remotely anywhere" and "masquerading as a Windows operating system" in a same sentence sets the sirens blaring when it comes to authenticity of the U.S. government claim.

I think the US Government should continue to press toward his extradition. The guy cost the government almost a million dollars, which means he cost YOU AND ME almost a million dollars. No, they will never get the money back, but I think he needs to pay for what he's done.

And we'll pay even more to continue with prosecution and if we win, house him for the next 30 years.